This dyad belongs to the conflict Tajikistan: Islamic State
Summary of conflict Tajikistan: Islamic State
In May 2015, the commander of the Tajik special police forces travelled to Syria and defected to IS, and hundreds, potentially thousands, of young Tajik men have joined IS since. The government of Tajikistan has been accused of suppressing Islam, harshly cracking down on practicing Muslims, and IS has positioned itself as the main alternative for violent Islamists in Central Asia. While IS has carried out only a few attacks inside Tajikistan, IS members from Tajikistan have been involved in many large-scale terrorist attacks in other countries.
The first recorded attack carried out by IS in Tajikistan occurred on 29 July 2018, when IS militants killed four cycling civilians. This was the first attack of one-sided violence carried out by IS in Tajikistan. The following day, the Tajik security forces found and killed three of the perpetrators in a nearby village, marking the first battle-related deaths in fighting between the Government of Tajikistan and IS. During 2018 and 2019, IS staged several prison riots in Tajikistan, making the conflict with the government of Tajikistan active.
Background
During 2014, reports emerged of the presence of the Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan and Pakistan. By the end of the year, some local commanders had pledged allegiance (bay’ah) to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
On 10 January 2015, six former TTP (Tehrik-I Taliban Pakistan) leaders released a video in which they again pledged allegiance to IS and nominated Hafiz Khan Saeed as the leader of the group. Two weeks later, on 26 January, IS accepted the bay’ah. In the official audio statement “Say, Die in your rage!”, the IS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani announced the expansion of the Islamic State, creating Wilayah Khorasan (Khorasan Province). Khorasan refers to an historical region covering parts of modern-day "Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other nearby lands", including Tajikistan.
IS recruited most of its members from the Afghan Taleban movement and other groups operating in the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan. In August 2015, the originally Uzbek group IMU, which had previously been active in Tajikistan, and had been fighting under the Taleban in Afghanistan for many years, pledged allegiance to IS and announced that they were now members of the Khorasan province.
In May 2015, commander of the Tajik special police forces Gulmurod Salimovich Khalimov travelled to Syria and defected to IS, and hundreds, potentially thousands, of young Tajik men have joined IS since. The government of Tajikistan has been accused of suppressing Islam, harshly cracking down on practicing Muslims, and IS has positioned itself as the main alternative for violent Islamists in Central Asia. While IS has carried out only a few attacks inside Tajikistan, IS members from Tajikistan have been involved in many large-scale terrorist attacks in other countries, including the January 2024 attack in Kerman, Iran, and the March 2024 attack on a concert hall outside Moscow, Russia. In contrast to the IS groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan, members in Tajikistan have had closer connections to the IS central command in Syria and Iraq.
The first recorded attack carried out by IS in Tajikistan occurred on 29 July 2018, when IS militants rammed a group of foreign tourists cycling in southern Tajikistan. After hitting them with the car, they used knives and firearms to kill four civilians. This is recorded as the first attack of one-sided violence carried out by IS in Tajikistan. The following day, the Tajik security forces found and killed three of the perpetrators in a nearby village, marking the first battle-related deaths in fighting between the Government of Tajikistan and IS. During 2018 and 2019, IS staged several prison riots in Tajikistan, making the conflict with the government of Tajikistan active.
